Memoirs of a Dying Fish
by Lady Athene
Summary: This is an alternate take on the Little Mermaid that I wrote for an English class yet the instructor didn't remember that it was an assignment so I never turned it in. It's a bit darker than the Disney version but I like it and I hope you do too.


****This is the story that we had to write for AP Literature. Thank you to my friends for helping with the idea generating, here's what I've come up with. I hope you enjoy.****

I was dying. There was blood leaving this unfamiliar body of mine. My life was flashing before my eyes. I found myself remembering things that I thought shouldn't have mattered. Maybe I should begin by introducing myself, though it seems rather trivial now.

My name is Ariel and, believe it or not, I used to be a princess in a world unfamiliar to many humans. I used to be the daughter of the King of the Sea. "Used to" being the key words. As I lay here dying, I can remember the incident clearly, as though it happened mere moments ago.

"You are not leaving this ocean young lady!" my father had exclaimed, his voice thundering throughout the throne room.

"Why not father?" I'd shouted back at him.

"It's too dangerous!"

"How so?"

"You could be killed! Snatched up by their nets, shot with their guns, turned into an exhibit at their zoos, or worse, you could end up pregnant with one of their children!" The King turned away from me, his white hair trailing slowly behind him in the salty ocean water.

"But father," I protested, "What if I want to bare the child of a human?"

My father turned back toward me, his ice blue eyes widened with rage. "Ariel, if you ever leave this ocean, I swear by the seven seas I will not welcome you back as my daughter!" he paused, letting his rage settle. "My daughter, I'm only trying to think of your safety. You are my last child, my gem of the ocean. Your voice is the light of the kingdom and the joy of my heart. I don't want to lose you..." a look of sorrow fell over his face.

"Father," I'd told him, "You don't understand. There's so much we can learn from the humans. I just want to learn from them. That's all." I put on my best pouty face.

"Learn what from them?" He roared angrily, "How to destroy the oceans that gave them their first form of life? If anyone doesn't understand, it's you Ariel." His face softened. "The humans would try to use a beautiful mermaid like you. Please, just stay here in the palace tonight." He'd turned to go, "Goodnight Ariel. And remember, stay here."

I remember that, as soon as he'd gone to his chambers, I'd left the palace to visit that awful sea witch. I knew I shouldn't have, but I was so desperate to walk on land, so desperate to see the man I'd watched for so long from afar that I had to go to her.

I remember well the first time I'd met the sea witch, for it was also the first time I'd ever seen that human whom I'd grown so fond of.

I was just returning from my rehearsal for the concert that was to take place in celebration of my father's birthday when I'd seen something strange floating atop the ocean's waves. Curious as to what it could have been, I swam closer to examine it.

At first I thought him to be one of my people, a merman, but upon seeing that he had two separate appendages instead of a tail, I dismissed the idea. I placed my head upon his chest to hear whether or not he had a pulse. It was very faint, but I could still hear it. He wasn't breathing and, when I'd tried pulling him under the waves it hadn't improved his condition any, so I assumed he was a land creature of sorts.

I pulled him along behind me as I swam toward the shore. I'd already heard several stories from my father about what had happened to young mermaids who'd let themselves get beached upon the shore, but this man-creature was dying and at this point I didn't care about the consequences. I know now that I should have listened to my father.

However, at the time I was concerned for the life of another. I had figured that I'd better get the water I'd put into his lungs (I'd discovered that he didn't have gills and, drawing upon my knowledge of land creatures, I assumed that he possessed lungs), so I began to vigorously pat his back. When that didn't work, I wrapped my arms around him and squeezed his upper middle torso. In a last-ditch effort, I laid him down on his back, pinched his nose, opened his mouth, placed my mouth upon his, and blew.

This, after several attempts, seemed to work, so, to avoid the risk of being seen, I leaped into the ocean and swam back toward the palace. Little did I know that I was being watched the entire time.

About halfway home, I was confronted by a dark-haired mermaid that I'd never seen before. She wasn't a mermaid in the traditional sense, for the fish portion of her body wasn't simply a tail. Instead it consisted of eight octopus tentacles as black as her hair.

"Well, well, well," she said as she circled around me, "What've we got here?" She smiled to herself a sickly saccharine smile, "A pretty little girl like yourself shouldn't be out in the ocean all by her lonesome. What's your name child?"

I was nervous, but then again I always get nervous when I'm being circled by a stranger. "My father told me not to identify myself to strangers." I'd replied.

The octopus-woman stopped in front of me and said, "Well then, let's fix that shall we? My name is Ursula. I specialize in," she paused, as if she were searching for a name to place upon her profession. Finally, she'd found one, "Medicines." she said at last, still smiling at me. "There, now I'm no longer a stranger to you. Now what is your name child?"

I couldn't argue with that logic. "A-Ariel," I stammered in reply, "I'm on my way home from a rehearsal and I really must hurry or my father shall be worried sick."

"Ah, but you had plenty of time to help that poor unfortunate soul that was drowning in the sea's watery embrace didn't you?"

The question had caught me by surprise and I had the sudden urge to curse my curiosity. Yet, somehow, I couldn't. Maybe it's because I actually kind of liked the man I'd saved. Or maybe it was because I'd done a good deed. At the time, I didn't know.

I should have swam away from this strange woman, but I didn't. As if I were bound by a spell of sorts to listen to her.

"You want to be able to go up onto the land and see him more often don't you?" Ursula suppressed the sick joy that was coming over her. I had begun to see it before it had disappeared from her slender face.

"N-no," I lied, "It's too dangerous. I could get hurt, or worse, killed. The shore is no place for a young mermaid." I'd been quoting my father, but I'd thought it had made a convincing lie.

The woman smiled as she swam away from me. "If you ever change your mind," she called, "Come by my grotto near the sunken ship. You can't miss it."

I remember swimming home with chills running down my spine and into my tail fins.

It was this woman whom I had gone to visit a year later. I remembered where she had said her grotto was and had scoped out the area a week prior, just in case. As I approached it, I could see lights coming from the entrance tunnel and I'd figured that she knew I was coming.

My suspicions were confirmed upon entering the main room of the grotto, for, as soon as I had come through the tunnel, the sea witch offered me a tiny vial filled with a strange looking liquid. She told me that this was a potion that would separate my tail into legs if I drank it.

I was all too eager to do so. However, upon unstoppering the vial and placing it to my lips, the sea witch informed me that there was a catch. I'd have to give up that which was so precious to me, my voice.

Foolishly, I had agreed. Ursula weaved a spell that transferred my beautiful voice into a golden seashell, which she'd tied around her neck and I drank the potion that would split my tail in two. It had worked and, at first, I'd started to drown, for I wasn't used to having legs and no gills. However, somehow, I'd managed to pull myself up to the surface.

I breathed in the sweet ocean breeze as my head came above the waves and I'd immediately begun to paddle my way to the shore.

My first day on land was a bad one, seeing as I lacked the necessary garments to pass as a civilized human being. However, a nice woman took me into a house full of other women and provided me with sustenance, clothing, and shelter.

My second day was much worse. I thanked the woman, who had explained to me that the establishment that she owned was called a homeless shelter for women, whatever that meant, and set off to find the man I'd become obsessed with.

The city I'd ended up in was huge, and I believed I'd have trouble finding him. Yet, by some favor of fate, I'd managed to spot him walking into a building with a sign on it that read "Al's Tavern." I knew not of what a tavern was, but I entered anyway. Big mistake on my part.

I had quickly found out that the human I was after was here to flirt with a dark-haired woman who very much resembled the sea witch Ursula. Sadly, my hunch was correct.

"Ursula," I'd heard the man say to her, "I have never met any woman as beautiful as you. Or any that could sing half as good either."

"Oh Eric," Ursula replied, faking a faint blush, "You say the sweetest things. Tomorrow, let's leave this city," she looked in my direction and, from that moment I knew I'd been tricked, "and leave your gang of scum. We can be together, just you and me. Just like the day I saved you from drowning." She giggled. I screwed up my face in disgust. That giggle was my giggle, her voice was my voice. I was angry. I wanted revenge.

I left the building before hearing Eric's reply. I was so angry that, as I made my way back to the shelter, I punched a window. I winced in pain at the glass that was now embedded in my hand, but, nonetheless, it gave me a weapon with which to kill Ursula. I picked up a large piece of glass and stuck it in the pocket of the huge coat the lady at the shelter had given to me.

On my third day upon land, I ended up where I am now, dying on the cold concrete sidewalk.

By another act of fate, I'd managed to find the two of them outside of Al's Tavern. Upon seeing Ursula, my anger kicked in.

I ran at her, holding my shard of glass like a small knife. I thought I could get her by surprise, thought she was unarmed. I was sorely mistaken.

The sea witch saw me coming. Quicker than a dolphin, she'd pulled out a strange black mechanism with a short barrel that I assumed was a gun and pointed it at me. She pulled the trigger twice and I felt something pass through my stomach and my left leg.

Bells tolled four times from a distance as my head slammed against the ground.

As I lay here bleeding, I can still hear Ursula's laughter as she and Eric, my beloved, walked away. It is my laugh, but it is colder and more cruel coming from her mouth. I want to scream in rage, in agony, in defeat, but I cannot, for my voice now belongs to another. This is the price I pay for my foolishness.

I can feel my spirit leaving this unfamiliar form now. I wonder, will I be able to sing in the afterlife even though my voice is held captive here on Earth? I shall find out shortly. A tear escapes my eye as my body goes numb. Farewell father, I think to myself. You were right all along.

****Obviously I didn't stick to the Disney rendition of the story, nor did I really stick to the original. I decided to make Ursula more appealing to the reader because I feel that there should be more attractive villains in children's movies. Is evil ugly, yes. Are the people who commit the evil acts always physically ugly, no. Sometimes the most beautiful people in the world are the most evil. I want to teach children that rather than all villains are ugly. Once again, thanks to my friends in AP Literature for the pooling of your ideas.****


End file.
